October
- Buy pansies early for the best choices but dont plant until it is cool which should be later this month.
- Refrigerate tulips and hyacinths 4-6 weeks before planting. It's recommended not to put them near apples in the refrigerator.
- Run water thru pot plants several times to leach out excess salts.
- Leave the spent flowers on perennials and roses so that they start going dormant.
- Fertilize the lawn for the last time this year.
- Sally McQueen Squire, Houston's Bulb Lady, recommends planting by the holidays. At Halloween plant alliums, anemones, blettila, calla lily, Dutch iris, ixia, muscari, ranunculus, scilla, watsonia, zephyranthes (rain lilies) leucojum and lycoris.
November
- Our fall color comes later. Good choices to plant for fall color are bald cypress, black gum, blackhaw, viburnum, crepe myrtle, Drummond red maple, Japanese maple, red oak and sassafras.
- Cyclamens, calendulas, primroses will bloom now through spring in the garden.
- Pansies are heavy feeders. Fertilize them regularly.
- Many annuals will survive the winter if well mulched. One can use leaves, pine straw or hay from a feed store.
- Thanksgiving is a good time to plant daffodils, allium, amaryllis and homeria.
- Remove leaves from water gardens.
- It’s ideal if you can mow a couple of times over fallen leaves and pine needles as this will help them break down when you mulch. If you have too many start a compost pile.
- Plan and be prepared to protect your plants from a freeze, even though the average first date for frost is December 10.
December
- Water in-ground plants when a freeze is forecast.
- Group container plants together.
- When you cover plants use cloth, not plastic and remove when it warms up.
- Don’t over water dormant plants.
- Feed Louisiana iris with cottonseed meal.
- Plant tulips around New Year’s Day. They mix nicely with pansies.
- Try primroses for color. Obconica or German primroses can be perennial.
Conservation List
For Coastal Prairie Dist IV:
Threatened:
Elmendrof's onion
(Allium elmendorfi)
Texas windmill grass
(Chloris texensis)
Coastal Gayfeather
(Liatris bracteata)
Branched Gayfeather
(Liatris cymosa)
Grand Prairie Evening Primrose
(Oenothera pilosella)
Correll's False Dragonhead
(Physostegia correllii)
Chapman's Orchid
(Platanthera chapmanii)
Welder Machaeranthera
(Psilactis heteracarpa)
Houston Daisy, Houston Machaeranthera
(Machaeranthera aurea)
Houston Meadow Rue, Texas Meadow Rue
(Thalictrum texanum)
Threeflower Thurovia
(Thurovia triflora rose)
Endangered:
Texas Prairie Dawn, Texas Bitterweed
(Hymenoxys texana)
Texas Trailing Phlox
(Phlox nivalis)
Navasota Ladies Tresses
(Spiranthes parksii)